➢ WHO WAS M.K.

GANDHI
➢ WHAT IS SATYAGRAHA
➢ CONCEPT OF SATYYAGRAHA
➢ AHIMSA AND SATYAGRAHA
➢ PRINCIPLES OF SATYAGRAHA
➢ FOUR MAJOR SATYAGRAHA
➢ CRITICISM OF SATYAGRAHA
➢ CONCLUSION
Born: October 2, 1869 Porbandar India

Died: January 30, 1948 (aged 78)

Delhi India

Political Affiliation: Indian National Congress

Notable Family Members: spouse

Kasturba Gandhi

Role In: British raj Jallianwala Bagh Massacre Poona Pact Salt
March noncooperation movement

WHAT IS SATYAGRAHA-

The term satyagraha was coined and developed

by Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), who practised
satyagraha in the Indian independence
movement and also during his earlier struggles
in South Africa for Indian rights. Satyagraha theory
influenced Martin Luther King Jr.'s and James
Bevel's campaigns during the Civil Rights
Movement in the United States, as well as Nelson
Mandela's struggle against apartheid in South Africa
and many other social justice and similar movements.

The concept of Satyagraha was first devised by Mahatma

Gandhi not in India, but while living among Indian inhabitants
in South Africa in 1907, when he organised an opposition to
the Asiatic Registration Law, also called the Black Act. It
took seven years of protest and the Black Act was finally
repealed in June 1914. Gandhiji proved that perseverance,
working with a community and most importantly a nonviolent
movement can achieve the desired goal.

For Gandhiji, Satyagraha was not just a means of non-violent

struggle but it became the philosophy of his life. By giving
the concept of Satyagraha, Gandhiji showed mankind to win
over greed and fear by love. In this principle of non-violence,
Mahatma Gandhi introduced the technique of resistance to
evil and untruth. His Satyagraha was inspired by boundless
love and compassion. It is opposed to sin, not sinner, the
evil, not evildoer.

Many countries have witnessed popular movements for

freedom, equality and peace, which drew inspiration from
the life and methods of Mahatma Gandhi.

AHIMSA AND SATYAGRAHA

For Gandhi ahimsa and satyagraha were tools to social
change. A satyagrahi has immense faith in the inherent
goodness of human nature and he believes that it responds
to love, to service, to suffering and to sacrifice. Satyagraha
is never launched for personal gain but is always used for
the good of others. A satyagrahi who is actively non-violent
refuses to obey repugnant laws and cheerfully suffers the
consequences. If there is a government that does not
concede the reasonable and just demands of people, a
satyagrahi would say that they would no longer be their
petitioners, or be governed by them, or have any dealing
with them. They would suffer the brutal might of the tyrant
cheerfully but unbendingly.

The goal of satyagraha includes the solution of human

problems. Satyagraha aims at moralization of politics,
fighting injustice and tyranny, settling social, political and
economical disputes, establishing effective democracy,
laying foundations of a new social order based on justice and
equality and paying the way for world peace. The satyagrahi
peruses his path with the single-mindedness. When he
 encounters evil he resists it with all his might. The word
‘defeat’ does not find a place in his vocabulary. While
fighting obstinately for his cause, he is ever willing to
compromise with his opponents, provided that it does not
involve humiliation and surrender of essentials.

PRINCIPLES OF SATYAGRAHA

Gandhi evolved the principle of Satyagraha during his stay

in South Africa. It was characterised by the use of the
method of passive resistance or civil disobedience. In
India, it was first used in Champaran Satyagraha in 1917
by Gandhi ji. Its basic tenets were as follows:

• A satyagrahi was not to submit to what he considered

as wrong, but was to always remain truthful, non-
violent and fearless.
• A satyagrahi works on the principles of withdrawal of
cooperation and boycott.
• Methods of satyagraha include non-payment of taxes,
and declining honours and positions of authority.
• A satyagrahi should be ready to accept suffering in
his struggle against the wrong-doer. This suffering
was to be a part of his love for truth.
• Even while carrying out his struggle against the
wrong-doer, a true satyagrahi would have no ill
feeling for the wrong-doer; hatred would be alien to
his nature.
• A true satyagrahi would never bow before the evil,
whatever the consequence.
• Only the brave and strong could practice satyagraha;
it was not for the weak and cowardly. Even violence
 was preferred to cowardice. Thought was never to be
separated from practice. In other words, ends could
not justify the means.

FOUR MAJOR SATYAGRAHA

Gandhiji was persuaded by Raj Kumar Shukla to study the

conditions of the Indigo Plantation workers in Champaran,
a district in Bihar.

The system prevalent in the Indigo Plantations was

the *. In this system, the peasants were
required to mandatorily cultivate indigo in 3/20th of their land
holdings.
Gandhiji did his research. At the same time, the Govt.
appointed a Commission of Inquiry to go into the whole issue
and nominated Gandhiji as one of its members. Needless to
say, it found the Planters guilty of exploitation. A compromise
was reached and Planters were ordered to refund 25% of the
amount they had illegally taken.
This time Gandhiji was dealing with the workers. Due to
plague, the mill owners had increased the pay to 75% to attract
workers. However, once the plague conditions subsided, the
mill owners wanted to bring down the pay to 20%. The workers
didn’t agree with this reduction and wanted 50% of the pay to
remain. The logic they sited was that WW1 had increased the
prices. Gandhiji didn’t want the interest of the industrialist
class to be hurt. He tried hard to persuade Ambalal Sarabhai
who was his friend but failed.

Left with no option, he asked workers to go on a strike. When

Gandhiji saw the strike subsiding, he went on a fast. This put
pressure on the mill owners who agreed for the 35%
increment.

This is where Gandhiji teams up with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

to help the cause of peasants. The peasants were in extreme
distress as their crop produce had been 1/4th of the original.
As per the revenue code, they were entitled for a full
concession. However, the Govt. wasn’t willing to let go of their
revenues and kept pressurizing the peasants.
Gandhiji urged all farmers to fight unto death against this
injustice of the British. He appealed the rich farmers to
support to the poor farmers by not paying revenues despite
having the capability. Later the British came out with a policy
asking the rich farmers to pay their due voluntarily. (which
backfired as no rich farmer willingly wanted to pay revenue)

British, in the name of curbing terrorist violence, had

introduced a Bill that severely curtailed the liberties of the
Indians. It had provisions for arrest without warrant and
detention for 2 years. Gandhiji called for a nation-
wide hartal accompanied by fasting and praying. The
Movement went in a different direction than what was
expected. There were events of violent outbreaks which feared
the Govt.

The Rowlatt Satyagraha was withdrawn on 18th April, 1919

because of the Jaliawala Bagh Massacre that happened on
13th April 1919.

Gandhiji called it a ‘Himalayan Blunder’. It should be noted that

NCM was not the first Nationwide Movement, it was the
Rowlatt Satyagraha.
Gandhi's writings on Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany
were controversial. He offered Satyagraha non-violence as a
method of combating oppression and genocide, stating:

If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my

livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as
the tallest Gentile German might, and challenge him to shoot
me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or
to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this I
should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil
resistance, but would have confidence that in the end the rest
were bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews
were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot
be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone
will bring them an inner strength and joy […] the calculated
violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the
Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such
hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for
voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could
be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had
wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the
tyrant. For to the God-fearing, death has no terror.

Gandhi was highly criticized for these statements and

responded in another article entitled “Some Questions
Answered” where he wrote:

Friends have sent me two newspaper cuttings criticizing my

appeal to the Jews. The two critics suggest that in presenting
non-violence to the Jews as a remedy against the wrong done
to them, I have suggested nothing new… What I have pleaded
for is renunciation of violence of the heart and consequent
active exercise of the force generated by the great
renunciation.

In a similar vein, anticipating a possible attack on India by

Japan during World War II, Gandhi recommended satyagraha
as a defense:

…there should be unadulterated non-violent non-cooperation,

and if the whole of India responded and unanimously offered it,
I should show that, without shedding a single drop of blood,
Japanese arms—or any combination of arms—can be
sterilized. That involves the determination of India not to give
quarter on any point whatsoever and to be ready to risk loss of
several million lives. But I would consider that cost very cheap
and victory won at that cost glorious. That India may not be
ready to pay that price may be true. I hope it is not true, but
some such price must be paid by any country that wants to
retain its independence. After all, the sacrifice made by the
Russians and the Chinese is enormous, and they are ready to
risk all. The same could be said of the other countries also,
whether aggressors or defenders. The cost is enormous.
Therefore, in the non-violent technique I am asking India to
risk no more than other countries are risking and which India
would have to risk even if she offered armed resistance.

Gandhi's satyagraha was an act of moral

creativity. For Gandhi, satyagraha was not only a political
weapon but a weapon of creativity. Satyagraha is a means of
establishing faith inhuman beings as also in God. The philosophy
of satyagraha holds that every human being is capable of doing
well and thinking good. Satyagraha's aim is to bear self-
suffering in order to generate a melt-down on the part of the
other. Possibility of a moral dialogue with the other is essential
for satyagraha to succeed. In this sense, satyagraha is a moral
act. It recognises the morality of the other. Satyagraha is the
only means of change that does not make a villain of the other.
Satyagraha is liberating. It liberates both the oppressed of his
bondages and the oppressor of his need to behave inhumanly
with others. Satyagraha is the best weapon to ensure and
sustain human rights. The birth of non-violence as a political
theory is seen as a seminal contribution of Gandhi to conflict
resolution.
Gandhi's approach to peace is based on satyagraha.
Satyagraha is the moral alternative to war. Gandhi showed us
the way to use it for problem-solving and conflict-resolution
from micro-level to macro-level. Gandhi's satyagraha proved
to be an effective means for political redress. Many of the
contemporary challenges related to war and peace, terrorism,
human rights, sustainable development, climate change, socio-
political unrest, and politico-administrative corruption could be
faced through adoption of the Gandhian Way. The twenty-first
century world has much to learn from it.